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Admitting he supported Australia's involvement in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Mr Abbott said we should nevertheless learn the lessons from the interventions in those two conflicts.

Mr Abbott described the chemical attacks that killed hundreds of Syrians as an ''abomination'', but he suggested there was little the Australian military could do to help.

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''Should any action be taken, it will be taken by countries with the capability to do so, and Australia is not one of those,'' Mr Abbott said.

''We don't have ready access to the kind of weaponry that apparently is possibly going to be involved, should anything be done.''

Mr Abbott appeared to rebuke Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who says Australia can play a significant role in the Syrian crisis as president of the United Nations Security Council from September.

Mr Rudd has hinted that Australia could side-step any veto in the UN Security Council by making a presidential statement to show ''broad sentiment'' condemning Syria.

Mr Abbott said on Friday: ''This idea that Australia is going to be a key player here is, I think, to rather exaggerate our own importance.''

"We've got to be very careful here to avoid making bad situations worse," Mr Abbott said. ''We all know what a powder keg the Middle East is.''

This idea that Australia is going to be a key player here is, I think, to rather exaggerate our own importance.

Mr Rudd restated in a press conference held soon after Mr Abbott's conclusion that the Bashar al-Assad regime was responsible for the deadly chemical weapons attack. But the Prime Minister said there had been no request from the United States or any other country for ''direct or indirect'' Australian military assistance.

Mr Rudd warned all Australians in Syria to leave as soon as possible and for all other Australians in the Middle East to seek travel advice regularly.

Britain has brought a draft resolution to the Security Council calling for ''all necessary measures'' to protect civilians from chemical attack - a form of words used to a justify a military strike.